Anyone who loves turquoise knows that the beautiful sky blue pinestone above is called the sleeping beauty pine. Is it true that the sleeping beauty is loose? Many people have such questions. Today, Xiao Bian will unveil the mysterious interview of Sleeping Beauty Pine.
The US "Sleeping Beauty" turquoise mine is located in Arizona, USA, because the shape of the mine looks like a sleeping beauty in a fairy tale. Due to the decreasing mineral resources of turquoise, most of the turquoise mines in the United States have been sealed, and only two are still being mined. The Sleeping Beauty Mine is one of them, and the quality of the turquoise produced is the best. The mine has a mining history of more than 100 years. The turquoise produced is mostly high-quality turquoise: the color is mainly pure sky blue and dark blue, the color is uniform, the texture is fine, generally there is no iron wire, and the relative density is relatively large. Generally, the Mohs hardness is 5-6. The polished texture after polishing is very similar to porcelain, so it is also called porcelain pine.
American "Sleeping Beauty" Turquoise
US turquoise mine distribution map
At present, the “sleeping beauty†turquoise sold in the Chinese market has been treated more, which is what we call “Zacheryâ€.
Sleeping beauty materials using three treatment methods.
From top to bottom
Waxing, Zakri, potting
Zachery treatment is a treatment method to improve the quality of turquoise. It is also called electroplating method and potassium salt dyeing method on the market for the improvement of medium-grade turquoise. This method was invented by Zachery and applied for a personal patent. The specific process is confidential. According to Zachery, the coloring ions such as copper and iron ions in natural turquoise are not added during the treatment, and plastic, wax, paint and other fillings are not injected, but other compounds are not excluded. To reduce the possibility of turquoise porosity, the entire process takes 3-6 weeks.
Zachery processing can be divided into two types:
(1) The overall treatment of the original stone, mainly reducing the porosity, improving the polishing performance, and then re-surface treating the gemstone cut from the treated rough stone to improve the surface color;
(2) Treatment of the surface of the cut turquoise without any treatment not only improves the color, but also reduces the porosity to some extent.
The same rough stone is processed by Zachery and compared with the map, from left to right: the upper part is Zachery processing; the right half is Zachery processing.
The picture shows four slices of the same rough. From left to right are:
A-natural turquoise;
B-surface treatment, only improve color;
C-integrated treatment, reducing porosity, but retaining natural color;
D-Overall treatment, reducing porosity and improving surface color.
The surface treated turquoise section shows a dark outer layer with a thickness of only 0.2-0.5 mm
Zachery processing is difficult to identify. Generally, conventional detection methods are difficult to distinguish. Effective identification methods include:
(1) visible cross-section color permeable layer, showing a dark layer, weak but clearly visible, the depth of the permeable layer is 0.2-0.5mm;
(2) Compared with the conventional dyeing method, the color of the Zachery surface treatment is more concentrated on both sides of the crack than the dye is enriched in the crack, but the overall porosity is not improved. The color of the Zachery treated turquoise cracks is indistinguishable from the natural turquoise;
Zachery overall processing and surface treatment comparison chart
Zachery's overall treatment has no improvement in color;
Zachery surface treatment improves color after cracking color deepens
Traditional dyeing treatment and Zachery surface treatment improve color contrast
(3) It can be detected by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The content of natural untreated turquoise potassium is always lower than that of calcium, while the Zachery treated turquoise shows higher potassium content.
The left picture shows natural turquoise with high Ca content; the right picture shows Zachery treated turquoise, and the K content is significantly higher than the Ca content.
(4) Oxalic acid test: A little oxalic acid solution is dropped on the Zachery treated turquoise to form a layer of "white skin" on the surface, and the natural turquoise is unchanged.
A: natural turquoise; B, C, D: treated by Zachery, the right part is soaked for 4 hours by oxalic acid
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